1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a vehicle body.
2. Related Art
As methods of manufacturing a vehicle body of a vehicle, various technologies have been proposed and put in practical use. For example, a vehicle body production method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2009-154815 includes mounting a floor member of a target vehicle type on a floor mount stage; temporarily fixing right and left inner structural parts, a roof beam to the floor member in a first temporary fixing stage; performing additional welding on the vehicle body after the temporarily fixing; temporarily fixing side outer members to the inner structural parts; performing additional welding on the vehicle body after the temporarily fixing of the side outer members; temporarily welding a roof member from above the side outer members; and performing additional welding on the vehicle body after the temporarily welding.
In the vehicle body production method disclosed in JP-A No. 2009-154815, the parts are first temporarily fixed and then temporarily welded. Accordingly, when, for example, the vehicle is transported for the temporarily welding after fixing right and left side structural parts to a lower central structural part, a problem arises in that during the transportation, a variation may occur between the mounting positions of the right and left side structural parts and the lower central structural part. Even when the vehicle body is positioned in place by a fixture used in the temporarily fixing, it may be impossible to eliminate the variation completely. This problem is particularly pronounced as the number of parts to be temporarily fixed in each process increases. In addition, when temporary fixation is attempted to be completed in one process, the operational range of welding robots is also limited and narrowed, and thus it may be difficult to perform welding at accurate welding positions while maintaining a sufficient strength of the vehicle body.